This invention relates to wireless communications transceivers, including but not limited to, transceivers adapted for multipurpose operations over a broad range of frequencies.
Globalization of the wireless communications market has resulted in a growing number of sophisticated users whose requirement for economically effective voice and/or data services can span multiple countries and continents. This requirement generates competitive pressure to provide equipment with the requisite flexibility and capability to operate within, and meet the regulatory mandates of, multiple jurisdictions.
Among numerous attributes, this equipment may need to operate over a large radio frequency bandwidth (for example 400 MHz-500 Mhz) without significant performance loss or otherwise becoming physically, economically, or functionally unacceptable. One significant constraint on this range may be the bandwidth or range of frequencies over which a voltage controlled oscillator, acting as a local oscillator, can deliver acceptable performance.
One known transceiver architecture that is used includes two voltage controlled oscillators, each capable of supplying a limited range of oscillator frequencies, operating on adjacent ranges of frequencies and collectively supplying either high side or low side local oscillator frequencies (f.sub.LO) to a receiver. The f.sub.LO is such that the difference between a desired receive frequency and the f.sub.LO is equivalent to an intermediate frequency (f.sub.IF). The f.sub.IF is preselected in view of commercial practicality and largely without regard to the magnitude of the range of oscillator frequencies. If, as is typical, a transmitter needs to cover the same range of frequencies as the receiver, one or more, in effect additional, voltage controlled oscillators may be required to supply these local oscillator frequencies. Other things being equal, physical size, economic cost, and power consumption may increase as the range of frequencies increase (number of voltage controlled oscillators increase).
Clearly a need exists for a transceiver that operates over a large range of radio frequencies without incurring the burdens associated with additional voltage controlled oscillators.